Coleslaw with a Little Kick
As easy as coleslaw seems to put together, I’ve found literally hundreds of recipes. Some folks like their cabbage finely shredded. Others like cabbage chopped in small pieces. There are variations with green onions, vinegar and sugar dressing, fennel – the options seem endless. I absolutely love coleslaw, creamy and freshly made with celery seed and dill.
Lovely Shredded Cabbage
Celery seed is a traditional addition to coleslaw dressing, but the dill was a little unusual. Our family loves dill. It goes back to my paternal grandmother’s garden. As I grew up, her garden became smaller and smaller, but she always had fresh dill in the summer. Grandma lived next door, literally across a small alley, with easy garden access. Frequently on Sundays, my mother would send me with a pair of scissors to collect a healthy bunch. She’d snip it and cook it gently in lots of butter and poured it over boiled baby red potatoes. Just heavenly!
I’m not a fan of bottled coleslaw dressing. In fact, I make many of my own dressings as often as I can with fresh or dried herbs. It’s cheaper and tastes better. And another surprising substitution – I’ve started to use 1/2 mayonnaise and 1/2 plain greek yogurt in all my dressing and dip recipes. I don’t find the yogurt to cut the richness or flavor, and I know I’m cutting out calories, too. Can it get any better??
Well, yes. To give the dressing a little kick, I add dried mustard powder (not prepared yellow mustard) to the dressing. The heat of the mustard comes nicely through.
Lovely Shredded Red Cabbage
Now, I’ve shredded my own cabbage. I’ve bought bagged shredded from the grocery, but my favorite is the angel hair shredded cabbage. It’s very thin and gives a nice texture to the salad, and all on its own, it might be a little too fine. So, I’ve ended up combining a bag of regular shredded cabbage and one of angel hair – that seems to be the perfect combination. I still cut up my own, but I’ll still spring for a bag of the angel hair stuff. And you might like to add a little shredded red cabbage, too, to color it up a bit. How about napa cabbage, crispy bacon and blue cheese crumbles??
When a recipe calls for one head of green cabbage, I honestly don’t know what that means. My dad used to bring me heads of cabbage as big as basketballs – one heck of a lot of coleslaw. I look for medium sized ones, about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds for this recipe, or one 16 oz bag of regular shredded and one 12 oz bag of angel hair.
The last time I made this, my niece Gayle and I were hurriedly putting together ingredients in time for my grandson’s first birthday party. Everyone raved about it and asked for the recipe. So, if your folks like a creamy, slightly off beat coleslaw, it’s hard to beat this one.
- 1 head green cabbage, finely shredded (or use 2 12-oz bags of shredded slaw from the grocery)
- 2 large carrots, finely shredded
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 Tablespoons grated yellow or white onion
- 2 Tablespoons white sugar
- 2 Tablespoons white or cider vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon dried mustard powder
- 2 teaspoons celery seed
- 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Put cabbage and carrots into a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk the remainder of the ingredients in bowl to make the dressing.
- Pour dressing over cabbage mixture and toss to gently coat. Correct seasoning and serve.
